Blue, Rahman's First Since Slumdog Fame

I have been eagerly looking forward to the soundtrack for the movie Blue, Rahman's first since the highly trumpeted twin Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire. There is precious little information about Blue out there but I am sharing the best link I could find. Yesterday, I finally got my grimy hands on the soundtrack and have listened to it several times now. Every movie soundtrack is different. On Blue, Rahman's attention is not on generating sweet melodies like Yeh Rishta (Meenaxi) or Ae Hairathe (Guru). Instead he seems to continue in the pop-dance vein of Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire). The tracks clearly demonstrate a talent for expertly weaving in genres. Jiggy Wiggy (Sonu Nigam) starts off as a slick pop number and then seamlessly blends in a bhangra flavor. My personal favorite, Aaj Dil, is a wonderful funk-jazz song with exquisite use of the piano and drums, delivered vocally by none other than Shreya Ghoshal and Sukhwinder Singh. Deliberate or not, there are a few bars in Fiqrana (Vijay Prakash) that are reminiscent of the string-based opening of the James Bond theme. Blue is, after all, an action-adventure. Bhoola Tujhe (Rashid Ali) did not leave much of an impression on me. Blue Theme, the theme song featuring Sonu Kakkar, utilizes a catchy juxtaposition of an Indian accented "balloo (blue)" alongside a decidedly American rap tune. A hint of the James Bond theme opening appears again in Rehnuma (Sonu Nigam). Acknowledgment to the following review for pointing out the James Bond connection (although I don't agree with much else in the review). Yaar Mila (Udit Narayan) seems to be the most inconspicuous song on the list. My verdict so far is that Blue has some good moments that compelled me to return to the album more than once and Aaj Dil is a definite gem. Subsequent listens could very well cause me to change my mind, but for now this album isn't in my top drawer along with Bombay, Water, Zubeida, Guru, and Delhi-6.

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